Bodleian Library acquires and publishes famous 'lost' Shelley poem and pamphlet

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

A lost revolutionary poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1811 and considered lost until 2006, has been acquired by the Bodleian in Oxford

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford have made their 12 millionth acquisition; a rare copy of a revolutionary poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1811 but considered lost until 2006.

The rediscovery of Shelley’s Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things caused a wave of excitement a decade ago but until now the recently-resurfaced literary gem, which some believe to be as important as his famous poem The Masque of Anarchy, has only been seen by a handful of scholars.

Now the valuable piece of Shelleyan literary history has been digitised and made freely available online via a dedicated website at poeticalessay.bodleian.ox.ac.uk alongside the fully transcribed text and information and video interviews about the poem and its history.



Today he is one of the most feted poets of the Romantic Age, but when he attended Oxford University in 1810 Shelley spent much of his time courting controversy, indulging in explosive experiments in his rooms and publishing radical poetry and essays. He was eventually expelled in 1811 for publishing a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism.

The recent acquisition reveals how the young undergraduate began radical pamphleteering during his first winter in Oxford with a poetic defence of the Irish journalist Peter Finnerty, who was accused of libel by the government and imprisoned for criticizing British military operations during the Napoleonic wars.

Written during the winter of 1810/11 and printed by a stationers on Oxford High Street, Shelley published the small, 20 page poem under the alias of ‘a gentleman of the University of Oxford’ and, according to the Bodleian, it reveals themes – the abuse of press, dysfunctional political institutions and the global impact of war – that “remain as relevant today as they were 200 years ago.”

The 172 lines of poetry are accompanied by a preface and notes from the author, but mystery has surrounded the pamphlet ever since it was printed and it wasn’t until 50 years after his death that the work was attributed to Shelley.

Even then, historical sources imply that it was impossible to find a copy of Poetical Essay. Little is known about the provenance of the Bodleian’s rare copy, which retains its original format without covers, apart from the fact that it was rediscovered in a private collection in 2006.

Describing the acquisition, which was made with help of a private donor, as a “tremendously exciting moment” Michael Rossington, Shelley expert and Professor of Romantic Literature at the University of Newcastle said, “this substantial poem has been known about for years but as far as we know it hasn’t been read by any Shelley biographers or scholars since it was composed, and people are intrigued to find out exactly what it’s about”.

“The poem is very interesting because it marks a new stage in Shelley’s development as a poet, revealing his early interest in the big issues of his day and his belief that poetry can be used to alter public opinion and effect change.”

After his short-lived, incendiary time at Oxford, Shelley eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook and for the next three years engaged in radical politics in various parts of Britain. In 1813 he privately distributed his first major poem, Queen Mab and in 1814 he met and eloped with the 16-year-old Mary Godwin, daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. They married soon after Harriet’s suicide in 1816.

In 1816 Shelley and Mary spent time with Lord Byron in Geneva and visited the Alps, an adventure which presaged the couple's eventual move to Italy where Shelley wrote a series of masterpieces including Prometheus Unbound, Julian and Maddalo, Epipsychidion, To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind and Mary wrote her novel, Frankenstein.

Shelley drowned off the Italian coast on July 8 1822. His body was cremated and his ashes buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.

Despite his fractious relationship the University, The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford now holds one of the world’s greatest collections of Shelley’s works and manuscripts, including the letters of Percy and Mary Shelley, notebooks etc. of Percy Shelley, with portraits and relics of them both. The library is also home to the Abinger Collection of correspondence and papers of three generations of the Godwin and Shelley families.

The latest addition to the collection was unveiled at a special event on November 10 at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Oxford.

Dame Vanessa Redgrave CBE, a friend of the Libraries who said she first read Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy when very young and found it “intoxicating”, introduced the pamphlet and read the preface to the essay while a group of Oxford University undergraduate students in English Literature read the poem to an audience of more than 300 guests.

To celebrate the event Professor Simon Armitage CBE, Oxford University’s Professor of Poetry, also read his new translation of Book IV of Virgil’s epic poem, Aeneid.

Shelley’s Poetical Essay will be on display in the Weston Library until 23 December 2015. For more information see www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson

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Miniature watercolour portrait of the young Percy Bysshe Shelley painted by Reginald Easton (1807-1893) after Antoine-Philippe, Duc de Montpensier (1775-1807).© Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

A draft of Shelley’s Ozymandias, a sonnet published in 1818 and probably written in late 1817.© Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley by an unknown artist after Amelia Curran, dating from before 1858. Watercolour on ivory.© Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

For online resources see:

Shelley’s Ghost: an online exhibition developed to accompany a 2011 Bodleian exhibition bringing together the collections of the Bodleian Libraries and the New York Public Library exploring the lives and work of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

The Shelley-Godwin Archive: an online archive bringing together over 90% of all known relevant manuscripts from the collections of the New York Public Library, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, the Bodleian Library, the Huntington Library, the British Library and the Houghton Library Shelleygodwinarchive.org

William Godwin’s Diary: a digital edition of the diary of William Godwin (1756–1836) from the Bodleian’s Abinger Collection godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Shelley’s Poetical Essay is available to view online at poeticalessay.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/literary-history/art541119-bodleian-library-acquires-long-lost-shelley-pamphlet